The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination | Harvard Magazine
http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

J.K. Rowling: "I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea."

speech by JK Rowling to Harvard graduates passing out day quite inspiring

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

fantastic speech i should watch every day

"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. -- You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. " -- J. K. Rowling

i love this.

JK Rowling

inspirational commencement speech